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The University of Akron is discussing with other institutions the idea of sharing adjunct professors to mitigate the effects of the Affordable Care Act, which will require employers, beginning next year, to provide health insurance to employees who work 30 hours per week. The idea is for adjuncts to spread their hours by working less than 30 hours at several different colleges. Critics such as Matt Williams, of the adjunct group New Faculty Majority, contends the arrangement could be a violation of federal law.

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There has been a recent increase in cases of college adjunct instructors suing their institutions, alleging age discrimination when passed over for full-time work in favor of younger, less-experienced colleagues. Maria Maisto, president of the adjunct advocacy group New Faculty Majority, suggests there may be a long-standing cultural bias against adjuncts. "If you've been an adjunct for a long time, for whatever reason, the assumption is that you're a failed academic," she says.

Only one-fourth of colleges recently surveyed by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources reported having policies in place for calculating adjunct instructor hours, which often include time spent outside class preparing for class or grading student work. Under the Affordable Care Act, colleges will have to provide health care benefits to adjuncts working 30 hours or more. As a result, some schools have begun cutting adjunct hours. The Obama administration has delayed the new rule, which was slated to take effect Jan. 1, for one year.

Adjunct faculty represented by a union enjoy better pay and benefits, according to the 2012 Coalition on the Academic Workforce report. Median pay for unionized part-time faculty was 25% higher than pay for their nonunion peers, and unions also helped secure better health benefits and retirement packages. Other perks unionized faculty enjoy at some schools include paid office hours and payment for cancelled classes, the report showed.

Colleges could reconsider cuts to adjunct faculty hours amid a decision yesterday by the Obama administration to delay for one year the requirement that employers offer health benefits for anyone working 30 hours or more. Community colleges had led the way in cutting adjunct hours to avoid paying benefits and may wait for more federal guidance before restoring hours. Maria Maisto, president of adjunct advocacy group the New Faculty Majority, said she was pleased with the delay, so colleges "would have time to deal with this more thoughtfully and inclusively."

Adjunct faculty at the University of Akron and other Northeast Ohio campuses staged protests this week over potential cuts in their hours in the wake of new provisions in the health care law that may force colleges to offer them health benefits. Under the new regulations, the hours of some 400 of the UA's 1,014 part-time faculty could be reduced in the fall.